Morton County ND Archives Biographies.....Gerard, Frederic F. 1806 - 1905 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/nd/ndfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 July 17, 2008, 9:31 pm Author: Unknown FREDERIC F. GERARD. Frederic F. Gerard was born in St. Louis, Nov. 14, 1829. His father was Francois Gerard and came from Canada. His mother was born in French Village, Ill. His grandparents came from Bordeaux, France. A grand uncle, Frederic Trotter, was with General Harrison in the Indian campaign against Tecumseh, and fought at the battle of Tippecanoe; later he took up land six miles from St. Louis at French Village, Ill. F. F. Gerard was educated at Xavier college where he stayed four years. On September 28, 1848, he made his first trip up the Missouri river in company with Honore Picotte, with whom his uncle, John B. Gerard was on intimate terms. He hired out as clerk to the American Fur Company at Fort Pierre, S. D., at a salary of $100 per year. He was known by the Indians at this post as Swift Buffalo. In the spring of 1849 he went to Fort Clark at a salary of $500. The American Fur Co.'s post was built here in 1881. A smaller post was built by Primeaux between this and the old Mandan village up the river, at this time occupied by the Arikara. Here he learned to speak the Arikara tongue, and usually spent his winters in their winter camp a few miles down the river in the timber. Black Bear was head chief of the Arikara at this time, and Old Star was second chief. After their death White Shield became head chief and Son of the Star was second chief. In the winter of 1850-51, Gerard killed a large buffalo bull in the sacred lodge of the Arikara, in the village near Ft. Clark. The buffalo had apparently sought shelter in this lodge and was killed on the low platform at the back of the lodge where the chiefs sat during the ceremonial dances of the tribe. In 1S55 Gerard acompanied a hunting expedition led by Basil Clement to the southwest of Ft. Clark toward the head waters of the Platte, where they hoped to buy .meat of the Sioux. They took with them five Red river carts and seven men to bring back the winter's supply of buffalo meat for the fort. The expedition reached the cholera camp on the Platte and the Sioux were found scattered in small bands in all directions, so that no meat could be obtained. On this expedition Gerard acquired the name from the Sioux of "Strikes the Bear," on account of his adventure with a grizzly bear, in which he had a narrow escape from death. In 1855, in company with Honore Picotte he went to Fort Berthold. The American Fur Company had a trading .post above the village, and Chas. Primeaux had a trading post below the village. In 1855 Primeaux sold his plant to the firm of Hawley & Hubbell, the members of which were A. J. Smith, Frank Bates, Hawley. and A. J. Hubbell of St. Paul. Two years later this firm failed and abandoned their trading post which was occupied by the American Fur Company. From 1857 to 1699 Gerard had charge of the post receiving $1,200 a year. On December 25, 1863, Fort Berthold was attacked by 600 Yankton Sioux belonging to Two Bear's band. The Sioux had come up the Missouri river to attack the Grosventres, Arikara and Mandans who had gone into winter camp on the L'eau Qui Monte creek (Lucky Mountain). This camp had been recently strengthened by the arrival of a large number of Assiniboines who were camped in their tents near by. When the Sioux discovered the arrival of these allies they hesitated to attack the combined force, and just then a heavy fall of snow drove them to seek shelter near Fort Berthold. The next morning they decided to take the fort, believing it would be an easy task in the absence of the three tribes. The attack was kept up from 9 till 4, and was pushed with a recklessness quite foreign to the usual Indian methods. Repeatedly a number of Indians dashed upon the block house and thrust lighted torches in at the loopholes in a vain effort to set the place on fire. They set Are to a number of the out buildings, and part of the Indian village was consumed. From inside the fort and stockade Gerard and the seventeen other whites who were with him maintained a murderous fire upon their assailants, killing about forty of them and wounding some hundred, many of whom later died on their retreat. Sometime in the afternoon the Indians at L'eau Qui Monte creek discovered by the smoke from the burning buildings what was going on, and they descended in full force upon their foes, driving them back and pursuing them for nearly 20 miles down the river. The retreating Sioux were so hotly pressed that many of the desperately wounded who were being carried off on travois were abandoned to the fury of their pursuers. After the fight the whites with Gerard were so fearful of another attack that they abandoned the fort and sought refuge with the three tribes at their winter camp. For ten days Gerard held the place alone, and made ready in case of emergency to blow the fort up with gunpowder should the Sioux return to the attack. At the end of this time the Indians broke camp and returned in a body to defend their one trading post from possible destruction, and they remained in the vicinity for the rest of the winter. Among the whites who were with Gerard in this fight were Pierre Garreau, Chas. Malnouri, Alfred McCamley and Z. Jeaneau. The Arikara gave Gerard on this occasion, the name of "Seven Yanktons" in honor of his well attested prowess in thus beating off the attack of their old enemies the Yankton Sioux. On several occasions, years later, different members of this band who had attacked the fort visited Gerard and attempted to take, his life in revenge for the loss he had inflicted on their tribe, but he was never caught off his guard and their attempts were always fruitless. In the fall of 1865 a mackinaw boat from the Montana gold mining camps came down the Missouri river and stopped at Fort Berthold. On board were seventeen men, one woman and two children. The traders showed Gerard where the bulk of their gold (amounting to $100,000) was concealed. The boat had a false bottom and beneath this was a small space filled with sacks of gold. The men carried also in their belts gold dust amounting to about $4,000. The miners had heard that the Sioux had committed massacres in Dakota and Minnesota, and wished to ascertain whether the river were safe for them. Gerard advised them to stay a week at Fort Berthold until the Sioux, whom he had heard were crossing the Missouri to the west, should be out of the way. Through some misunderstanding or possibly from false reports the miners decided to push on at all hazards. Gerard then warned them to proceed with the greatest caution, traveling only at night, camping always on the west side of the river, and covering their boat with brush during the day. Above all else he warned them not to build a fire or fire off a gun until they were far below the mouth of Heart river. In spite of these warnings, however, the occupants of the boat used none of the usual precautions necessary in a hostile Indian country. At the old ford just north of the Heart river the boat was discovered by the Sioux and every person on board was killed except one little girl who died in captivity a few weeks later. The bags and belts containing the gold dust were cut open and their contents scattered on the sand. Gerard afterward bought two coffee pots full of this gold dust mixed with sand which had been gathered up by some Arikara, who later visited the scene of the massacre. An independent trader at Fort Berthold, Jos. McEllery, also bought some of this gold dust. Mr. Gerard was the doctor of last resort for the Indians at Fort Berthold. The American Fur Company supplied him the necessary medical books and supplies, and he came to be looked upon as a skillful physician and surgeon, fully able to meet any of the emergencies arising in the primitive community about him. In 1860 he vaccinated three hundred Indian children after persuading the chief, Son of the Star, that the operation was a necessary one. He was fortunate also, in being able to cure the son of Yellow Bear, chief of the Arikara, and later chief in his father's place. The epidemic of smallpox in 1S6B was brought to Fort Berthold by some squaws who were hired to accompany a steamboat from Fort Clark to Fort Union. On the return trip they contracted the disease and it spread among the Missouri river tribes with terrible effect. In 1869 the American Fur Co., or as it was then called the Chas. P. Choteau Co., sold out to the A. J. Smith Co. (later Durfee & Peck) and all but the post at Ft. Benton pasesd into the hands of the new firm. At this latter place A. J. Baker still managed the affairs of the old company. At the same time Gerard became an independent fur trader, establishing stores at Ft. Berthold and Ft. Stevenson. In the fall of 1870 he abandoned his posts at these places, and moved his entire stock to Ft. Buford. On Jan. 7, 1871, the government order that drove Chas. P. Larpenteur out of the trade [1] also compelled Gerard to leave Ft. Buford, and the regular licensed trader representing Durfee & Peck remained in full possession. [1] Coues, Larpenteur's "Forty Years a Fur Trader on the Upper Missouri," N. Y. 1898, Vol. II., 393, note. It was during this transfer of his goods up the Missouri river that Gerard and his guide discovered, near Ft. Buford, a deserted camp of the Assiniboines. It was after a heavy fall of snow, and from the bluff above the river they noticed that in this camp of about twenty tepees in the bottom near the river no fires were burning, and that no trails, led through the snow out to the timber pr up to the hills. They descended the hill and discovered that every one in the camp had died of small pox, even the dogs had perished. Some of the dead had been placed in trees, after the usual burial custom, but so suddenly had they been attacked by the disease that most of them lay dead in the tepees or outside in the snow. The next spring the Indians set fire to the timber and thus destroyed every vestige of the ill fated camp. Gerard's last fur trading venture ended in complete disaster. In the spring of 1872 he took his remaining stock of goods to Ft. Benton, in order to trade with the Blackfeet Indians in British America. While his wagon train was crossing from Old Man creek to Belly creek (a tributary of the Bow and of the Saskatchewan) on the Canadian side, a Blackfoot war party captured his train and killed five men. On July 6, 1872, Gerard was hired as government interpreter at old Ft. Lincoln, a position he held till 1882. At this time also he located a ranch on the site of the present city of Mandan. In 1873 he was fortunate enough to save the Northern Pacific railway surveying party under Brigadier General Bosser (ex-Confederate officer) from being cut off by a Sioux war party, some fifty in number, that lay in ambush on the trail along which Rosser's party were moving. When later it was ascertained that Gerard's ranch was on the Northern Pacific land grant, the company, in consideration for his services in saving Roser's party, gave him forty acres of land south of the present city of Mandan. This land he later platted, and when he removed to Minneapolis, he sold it for $5,000. On May 17, 1876, Gerard accompanied the Custer expedition to the Little Big Horn, and was bunk mate of Charley Reynolds of Kentucky, "Lonesome Charley," as he was called. Gerard relates that Reynolds told him of the strong presentiment he had of his approaching death, and that Reynolds gave away all his persona] belongings to his friends in the party. He left with Gerard his Kentucky address in order that his friends there might be notified in case he was killed. He even tried to get Gen. Terry to release him from his position, so certain was he that he was going to his death. Gerard's experiences during the battle of the Little Big Horn are already a matter of history. The exact details of the part he played under Gen. Reno came out in the trial of the general in Chicago in 1879. The Chicago Tribune of this year contains an interview which gives in greater detail than is possible here, what took place in Gen. Reno's division from the time it was ordered by Custer to pursue the retreating Sioux until it was relieved by Gen. Terry. Gerard with three others was cut off by the Sioux during Reno's retreat, and did not regain the command until eleven p. m. of the following day, June 26. The other members of the party were Lieut. De Rudio, a French officer, of the 7th cavalry, Sergeant O'Neill and William Jackson, a half breed Blackfoot scout. The party remained within sight of Reno's camp all day, and they heard also the firing in the direction of Custer's division,—the regular volleys of the soldiers and the scattering fire of the Indians. At about three in the afternoon this fire slackened, and then ceased except an occasional shot which told them plainly enough the fate of that portion of the army. After night fell they tried to regain Reno's command, but the Indians were so numerous that it was found to be impossible. After several hairbreadth escapes the party became separated, and Gerard with Jackson rode to the cover of some willows and lay there all day, hearing the attack on Reno's division continue till nearly dark. The coming of Gen. Terry and the consequent retreat of the Indians released them from their hazardous position. In 1879 Gerard married Ella S. Waddell of Kansas City. In 1883 he opened a store in Mandan, and his history becomes identified with the growth of that city. He was one of the first county commissioners of Morton county. In 1890 he sold out in Mandan and removed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he is now employed as one of the advertising agents for the Pillsbury mills. Additional Comments: Extracted from: COLLECTIONS OF THE State Historical Society OF NORTH DAKOTA VOL. I BEING FIRST ANNUAL REPORT OF THE STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF NORTH DAKOTA TO THE GOVERNOR OF NORTH DAKOTA FOR YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1906. BISMARCK, N. D. TRIBUNE, STATE PRINTERS AND BINDERS 1906 Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/nd/morton/photos/bios/gerard8nbs.jpg File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nd/morton/bios/gerard8nbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/ndfiles/ File size: 14.6 Kb